


Wildest Dreams

by orphan_account



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, BB-8 is the farm dog, Cowboy Poe is my favorite, Horses, M/M, Mentions of PTSD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-16 01:17:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5807614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poe Dameron is a retired USAF pilot and a respected horseman and trainer. He owns El Cielo Ranch. Finn is the new groom (who can actually ride pretty well), and Rey is the riding instructor. I promise it's better than it sounds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wildest Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> guys, before you even read this, i am sorry for my terrible writing. i haven't written anything other than a research paper and lab reports since i was younger and on countless roleplay sites. enjoy my garbage. comments fuel me.

The sun hadn’t even come up over the horizon when Poe pushed open the main barn doors, which had already been cracked open. He marked that as odd, but ignored it as he opened the doors all the way, letting the morning light flood in to the dusty barn aisle. The absence of nickers was replaced by the sound of horses chewing happily on their grain. _Jess must’ve been early with the grain_ , he thought.  
Opening the tack room door, he was shocked when the normally chaotically organized (Rey and Jess called it disastrously messy) tack room was organized, the saddles hanging on their correct rack, and the saddle blankets were surprisingly not in a pile in the corner.  
“Morning.” A voice said from behind Poe, who turned on the heel of his boot in surprise.  
“Morning to you, too. You’re Finn, right? Rey’s buddy from college?” Poe greeted with a tip of his hat and a grin. Rey neglected to tell him that the new barn help was incredibly attractive, with defined muscles and dark skin and eyes that could make a dying man smile.  
Finn smiled and rocked back on his heel, the half rusted spurs on his boots clinking. “Yeah, that’d be me. I hope you don’t mind that I put the tack room back together. It looked like a hurricane went through here.” In return to that, Poe rolled his eyes, laughing. “Everyone keeps telling me that. Anyway, Rey said you can ride. Hope you brought a saddle. The horses have their bridles outside their stalls. Pick one and tack up.” He instructed as he grabbed a saddle that boasted of a rodeo championship.

After he’d dumped the saddle in the cross-ties, Poe walked quickly down the aisle of the 25 stall barn, stopping at stall 16, which housed his barrel horse, LCR Black Reverie, Revy for short. Clucking his tongue softly to get the horse’s attention, he retrieved the purple (which is a completely manly color, despite what Rey said) halter and put it on quickly, leading the horse by it, stopping briefly to get the bridle.  
When Poe reached the cross ties again, he looked across the aisle, seeing that Finn had already gotten a saddle and breastcollar on a small palomino gelding, who was one of his personal barrel prospects.  
“I can’t believe you managed to get that on him that fast, he usually has a fit and bites me.” Poe remarked, for the first time in a long time, feeling like he had nothing to say.  
Finn unclipped the cross ties from the gelding’s leather halter, slipping the halter down on the horse’s neck before he slipped the bridle easily on to the horse’s petite head. “He tried, I got after him.” He replied, smiling and leading the horse out of the cross ties, watching as Poe continued to tack up.  
Shifting his glance from cinching the saddle, Poe admired the man, who was absentmindedly stroking the palomino’s neck, his muscles shifting under the maroon polo shirt. A sharp bark shook him from his appreciative looking at Finn. He turned his gaze from Finn, down to the brown and white border collie. “Hey Bee!” He exclaimed, bending down to stroke the dog briefly before he finished tightening the cinch, causing Revy to flick his tail in annoyance.  
He quickly bridled the horse, leading him out of the cross ties. “Come on, we don’t have all day. You haven’t even done stalls yet.” Poe quipped, shooting a playful look at Finn, who just laughed. 

When they reached the arena, Poe checked the cinch one more time, not bothering to check the stirrups, because he was the only one that used this saddle, mainly because everyone was tired of adjusting the stirrups longer. In his defense, 5’9 is a perfectly respectable height. Or not. But at least he could still ride the ponies without looking too bad on them.  
Leading Revy to the mounting block, he watched with envy as Finn mounted easily from the ground. Stepping on the wooden top step, he swung on to Revy’s back, shifting the saddle a bit and adjusting the brim of his hat to obscure the morning sun peeking over the mountains from shining in his eyes. Then, he pressed his heels to the gelding’s sides and urged him in to a slow trot, riding side by side with Finn.  
Once they both trotted around the arena roughly six times, Rey rode up to the gate (bareback, of course) on the farm’s tallest horse, a 17.3hh off the track thoroughbred, unlocking the gate and maneuvering the horse (affectionately deemed “Red”, due to chestnut coloring) around it, before latching the gate again. She loped Red up to the pair of shorter horses, before slowing him in a trot to match. “I see you’ve met Finn, Poe. Isn’t he great? He was the captain of the rodeo team. We met that way.” She smiled, glancing over at Poe, who was in Red’s shadow, his horse standing much shorter than the thoroughbred. “He did a great job with the tack room.” Poe agreed, his cheeks coloring slightly as his other thoughts about Finn surfaced. Noticing this, Rey’s smile turned more in to a smirk, “I’ve heard he’s a fun ride.” She winked, before trotting faster than the two men, heading towards the gate (assumingly going to the adjacent arena).  
“Alright Finn, why don’t you run the pattern for me? I think Goldie’s warmed up enough. He’s usually yanked me around by now.” Poe asked, dropping his horse’s knotted reins around the saddle horn, leaning his weight back so the black gelding would stop by the gate. “I’ll go next. I wouldn’t want you to eat my dust.” He taunted with a half-smile.  
Already cantering the palomino gelding, Finn shouted across the arena, “Oh, we’ll see about that!” as he lightly spurred Goldie in to a gallop, heading towards the first barrel, which the horse slid around easily, but stumbled slightly afterwards. Despite the glitch in the run, he eased the palomino towards the second barrel, which they took perfectly, as they did for the third.  
After the run was finished, Finn trotted the palomino back towards Poe, a grin on his face. “He’s not fast enough.”  
“You hit 13 seconds on the dot. Fastest run he’s had. I think you did pretty fucking good.” Poe replied, feeling the competitive adrenaline kick in as he spurred Revy in to a canter, circling him three times before he urged the horse in to a medium gallop, taking him around the first barrel. The first barrel was critical, it set up the whole run, and basically determined his time for the rest of the run. Spinning around the first barrel perfectly, he barely laid the reins against the gelding’s neck as they came towards the second barrel, which they took so fast that Revy’s back end swerved out, causing them to slow down. As they took off for the third barrel, Poe felt like he was flying again, the rush of wind in his ears was deafening, which took all his focus off the horse. Before he realized, Revy slowed down, breathing heavily as he trotted bouncily. “I guess you win. I messed up on the second barrel.” Poe panted, breathing as heavily as the horse was. “Beginner’s luck. I’ll help you wash off the horses. Only ‘cause it’s your first time here.” He said with a wink, dismounting Revy and leading him towards the barn.

It was only Finn’s first day at the ranch, and Poe had managed to be beaten by him, only to make a sexual innuendo. He gave himself a mental, albeit sarcastic, pat on the back. _Good job Dameron, you probably managed to scare the new help away and earn yourself some new competition._ To top it all off, it wasn’t even noon.


End file.
